It's an utterly unprofessional slang phrase, in its most benign form. It's also a specific sexual term in some contexts. She's a governor who has higher political aspirations. If she can't find a more appropriate phrase to describe the necessity for discretion when discussing ongoing negotiations, she has reason to be embarrassed.

As a business consultant, I can tell you first hand that the business environment in Albuquerque is going to get worse before it gets better. When businesses fail, then jobs go away, then people move out of the area or State and the cycle continues to repeat. My last New Mexico client closed it's doors in late January. Yet clients in AZ, CO, and TX continue to see favorable outcomes. There are just too many gaps between the business sector and the demographic of the NM population.

OBTS, if I had to narrow it down, I would have to say that those three States seem to be able to attract and maintain a deep pool of talent in the workforce. I specialize in IT and I can remember time after time when my NM clients would have job postings out for over 6 months unable to either attract or pay qualified talent while another client in our neighboring States would be able to fill similar positions at will.

RLAD, I wonder if it isn't also that pay levels are so low here in NM that people who do have any talent just move on? It seems that employers here bank on being able to pay low wages, not seeming to realize they are shooting themselves in their feet when they do so.

OBTS the pay scale is definitely lower here and retention is a huge issue especially in those critical first 12 months. I've heard numbers around 25-30% new hires in tech jobs leave before they complete a year here in Albuquerque. The national average is somewhere around 20%.

Albu Citizen - while I agree that we should take care of our own, if the resource pool of hireable people don't have the skill-set you need, it is a gamble to invest in that individual. Training is expensive and many businesses are having to do more with less people. And if the odds are that that newly trained employee is going to skip out of town within a year, you, the business, is out a bunch of money. So many businesses are very particular about who they hire.